The Sunshine Economy: Profit Or Performance? Charter Public Schools

Click the play button above to hear the radio segment from The Sunshine Economy: Education on August 19 with host Tom Hudson. The show airs every Monday at 9 a.m. on WLRN 91.3 FM.

Jon Hage may be one of the most important school leaders you probably have never heard of. No one elected him to a school board or hired him as a superintendent.

But his company, Charter Schools USA based in Fort Lauderdale, is one of the fastest growing charter school operators. It runs more than a dozen schools in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and has expanded to a half dozen more states.

One school his company runs is Aventura City of Excellence School in Aventura. Hage is pictured on the right (above) with the school principal Julie Alm. She's led the school since it opened as a charter public school in 2003.

Alm says parents never ask about Charter Schools USA profits from managing the school. Instead, she says parents want to know about performance.

We walked the hallways of Aventura City of Excellence School days before the new school year began, then spoke with Hage about the specific financial responsibilities of managing the school and expanding his company.